Boulder County: East County Line Road bridge replacement to begin Aug. 1

By John Fryar

Times-Call staff writer

Posted:
06/23/2014 07:22:09 AM MDT

Updated:
06/23/2014 07:31:19 AM MDT

A broken section of pipe is seen next to a flood damaged section of the County Line Road bridge last Thursday. (Matthew Jonas / Longmont Times-Call)

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Times-Call's series Take Two revisits people and situations about which we have written previously. Take Two stories run on Mondays.

Construction of the replacement of the flood-damaged East County Line Road bridge over the St. Vrain River south of Colo. Highway 119 is expected to begin on or about Aug. 1, according to Boulder County Transportation Department officials.

The design of the new bridge and its approaches, which will replace a structure and stretch of road washed out by last September's flood, has been completed and Boulder County plans to advertise for bids within the next week or so, according to Transportation Department spokesman Andrew Barth.

The contractor will have to do the work under an aggressive timetable set by Boulder County, with work to be completed in 90 calendar days from the start of construction, which would reopen that stretch of East County Line Road by the end of October.

Boulder County officials decided earlier this year to delay building the replacement bridge to avoid disturbing a nearby bald eagles' nest.

That, those officials said at the time, would prevent the parent eagles from leaving the area or losing their fledglings.

County officials said last week that the Aug. 1 construction start date, and the now-planned end-of-October conclusion, would fall within a time frame when the eagles generally are no longer using the nest to rear their young.

Those officials said that the two eaglets that hatched from eggs there will by August be making their first flights and fledging, with the young birds and their parents finally dispersing from the nesting territory.

Susan Spaulding, a senior wildlife biologist in the county's Parks and Open Space Department, said the two eaglets that have hatched in the nearby nest — which is about mile away from the bridge on county-owned open space land west of East County Line Road and south of the St. Vrain — will probably start trying out their wings and taking short flights around the nest by the first week in July.

The St. Vrain River flows past flood damaged sections of the County Line Road bridge. (Matthew Jonas / Longmont Times-Call)

By the end of July, the two young eagles "will be strong fliers," Spaulding said.

The contractor hired for the county's bridge replacement project will have to have all heavy equipment operations completed by mid-October, Barth said, before the eagles may return to the nest.

The existing bridge will be removed and replaced with a 270 foot-long structure that's designed to carry the waters in a 100-year flooding event. East County Line Road also will be raised to meet floodwater overtopping criteria for a minor arterial roadway.

Barth said last fall's flooding diverted the St. Vrain River into a new channel that's about 100 feet south of its original alignment at the East County Line Road crossing. The new bridge will span that new channel.

Transportation Department director George Gerstle said the county and representatives of federal agencies decided to leave the river in its new channel and to build the bridge over that, rather than trying to move it back into its previous path.

"The creek wants to go where it went" in last year's flood, Gerstle said.

Barth said an environmental firm will be hired to monitor the eagles, if they're still anywhere in the area during construction and to watch for the anticipated return of the eagles during or after the late stages of the road and bridge work.

"In order to meet this extremely tight time frame, we are using accelerated bridge construction methods," Barth said.

He said almost all of the bridge components will be pre-cast elsewhere, brought to the site and placed there. The only parts of the bridge that won't be prefabricated are the caissons and the bridge deck, which will be poured in place at the site.

Last winter, regional representatives of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Boulder County wouldn't necessarily have to delay the bridge replacement because of the eagles' presence in the neighborhood. Those federal officials said that under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, the Service could issue permits for such projects where they're found to be appropriate.

Boulder County Commissioner Cindy Domenico, however, said in March that the county's own wildlife policies were a major reason behind the decision to delay the project's start.

"We feel very strongly that if we can protect our wildlife, we should," Domenico said at the time.

The East County Line Road bridge replacement and road improvements project's price tag, under current estimates before bids are taken, is expected to total $4.62 million. County officials, however, expect federal agencies will eventually reimburse Boulder County for at least 80 percent of the project cost.

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